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The World Hockey Association (French:
Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey league that
operated in North
America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major
competition for the National Hockey League (NHL)
since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in
1926. Although the WHA was not the
first league since that time to attempt to challenge the NHL's
supremacy, it was by far the most successful.

The WHA hoped to capitalize on the lack of hockey teams in a
number of major cities, and it also hoped to attract the best
players by paying more than NHL owners would. The WHA successfully
challenged the reserve clause, which bound players to
their NHL teams even without a valid contract, allowing players in
both leagues greater freedom of movement. Sixty-seven players
jumped from the NHL to the WHA in the first year, led by star
forward Bobby Hull,
whose ten-year, $2.75 million contract was a record at the time.
The WHA signed European players, previously thought to be unsuited
to the North American style of play.

History

Founding

The World Hockey Association was founded in 1971 by American promoters
Dennis Murphy and Gary Davidson. The pair had previously been the
founder and first president of the American Basketball Association,
respectively.[1] They
quickly recruited Bill
Hunter, president of the junior Western
Canada Hockey League.[2] Hunter
and Murphy traveled across North America recruiting potential
owners, and by September 1971, had announced that the league would
begin in 1972–73 with ten teams, each having
paid $25,000 for their franchise.[3]

The average NHL salary in 1972 was $25,000, the lowest of the
four major sports, while players were bound by the reserve clause, a
clause in every player's contract that automatically extended a
player's contract by one year when it expired, tying them to their
team for the life of their career.[4] In
October 1972, the WHA announced that it would not use the reserve
clause, stating that "The reserve clause won't stand up to the
scrutiny of ... players, players associations, the United States
Congress, the public and the Supreme Court".[5] The WHA
also promised much higher salaries than the NHL offered, and by the
time the league began play, it had lured 67 former NHL players to
its league, including Bernie Parent, Gerry Cheevers, Derek
Sanderson, J.
C. Tremblay and Ted
Green.[6] The
biggest name signed was former Chicago Black Hawks star Bobby Hull, who agreed to
a 10-year, $2.7 million contract with the Winnipeg Jets, the largest in hockey
history at the time, and one that lent the league instant
credibility.[7]

The NHL tried to block several of the defections. The Boston Bruins
attempted to restrain Sanderson and Cheevers from joining the WHA,
though a United States federal court refused to prohibit the
signings. The Black Hawks were successful in having a restraining
order filed against Hull and the Jets pending the outcome of legal
action the Black Hawks were taking against the WHA. The new league
was eager for the court action, intending to challenge the legality
of the reserve clause.[8] In
November 1972, a Philadelphia district court placed an injunction
against the NHL, preventing it from enforcing the reserve clause
and freeing all players who had restraining orders against them,
including Hull, to play with their WHA clubs. The decision
effectively ended the NHL's monopoly on major league professional
hockey talent.[9]

Although the league had many players under contract by June
1972, including a few NHL stars such as Bernie Parent, many of its players were
career minor leaguers and college players. The new league was not
considered much of a threat, until Bobby Hull, arguably the NHL's top forward
at the time, jumped to the new league. Hull, who considered moving
to the WHA as part of a negotiation tactic with the Chicago Black
Hawks, had jokingly told reporters that he would only move to
the WHA for a million dollars, at that time a ridiculous amount of
money for a hockey player. But, to everyone's surprise, the Winnipeg Jets
offered him this sum. Hull accepted and moved to the WHA, signing a
five-year, million-dollar contract, with a million-dollar signing
bonus. Hull's signing attracted a few other top stars such as
Cheevers, Sanderson, and Tremblay.

The WHA officially made its debut on October 11, 1972 in the Ottawa Civic Centre, when the Alberta Oilers defeated the Ottawa
Nationals 7-4. Although the quality of hockey was predictably
below that of the NHL, the WHA had indeed made stars out of many
players that had little or no playing time in the NHL.

The New England Whalers would eventually win
the WHA's inaugural championship, later renamed the Avco World
Trophy when the Avco Financial Services Corporation became its
main sponsor. However, the World Trophy had not yet been completed,
and the Whalers were forced to "skate" their divisional
championship trophy around the ice surface, much to the
embarrassment of the WHA office.

Alternate WHA logo

Problems

Right from the start, the league was plagued with problems. Many
teams often found themselves in financial difficulty, folding or
moving from one city to another, often in mid-season. Two of the
original twelve teams, the Dayton Aeros and the
San Francisco Sharks, relocated citing
arena troubles. These two franchises were moved to become the Houston
Aeros and Quebec Nordiques, respectively. Other
franchises, such as the Calgary Broncos and the Screaming
Eagles, folded outright. The Philadelphia
Blazers and the Cleveland Crusaders would replace
the Screaming Eagles and the Broncos.

The New
York Raiders, initially intended to be the WHA's flagship team,
suffered from numerous problems. While they planned to play in the
brand new Nassau Veterans Memorial
Coliseum, Nassau County did not consider the WHA a professional
league and wanted nothing to do with the Raiders. The County hired
William Shea, who
worked with the NHL to quickly award a franchise to Long Island,
the New
York Islanders, who effectively locked up the Coliseum for
their own use. The Raiders were first forced to rent space at Madison
Square Garden, where they were tenants to their major
competitor, the New York Rangers. The situation
rapidly became untenable, with an onerous lease and poor
attendance, so the three original owners defaulted and the league
ended up taking control of the team midway through the season. The
Raiders were sold after that season and renamed the New York Golden
Blades, but were forced to revert to a Sundays-only home schedule
due to the high price of rent and scheduling conflicts with other
events at Madison Square Garden. This, however, was not enough to
save the team, and the league was forced to take over the franchise
again 24 games into the season. Realizing that it could not hope to
compete with both the Rangers and the Islanders, the WHA moved the
Golden Blades to New Jersey soon after taking control. Renamed the
New Jersey Knights, they played at the Cherry Hill Arena which had
a slope in the ice surface, causing pucks to shoot upward from
results of a pass or shot, as well as chain link fencing inside the
plexiglas surrounding the rink. The arena was also closely cramped,
with players not having adequate changing and dressing
facilities.

In another instance, Harold Ballard, owner of the Toronto
Maple Leafs, deliberately made the Toronto Toros' lease terms at Maple Leaf
Gardens as onerous as possible after they moved from Ottawa.
The Toros were owned by John F. Bassett, son of Canadian media
mogul John
Bassett. The older Bassett had formerly been part-owner of the
Leafs with Ballard and Stafford Smythe before falling out with
his two partners. The Toros' lease with Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd.
called for them to pay $15,000 per game, which was negotiated by
Ballard's son Bill while the elder Ballard was in jail. However, by
the time the Toros played their first game, Ballard had regained
control of the Gardens. Much to Bassett's outrage, the arena was
dim for the first game. It was then that Ballard demanded $3,500
for use of the lights. Ballard also denied the Toros access to the
Leafs' locker room, forcing them to build their own at a cost of
$55,000. He also removed the cushions from the home bench for
Toros' games (he told an arena worker, "Let 'em buy their own
cushions!"). It was obvious that Ballard was angered at the WHA
being literally in his backyard, and took out his frustration with
the renegade league on the Toros. These terms forced Bassett to
move the team to Birmingham.[10]

Part of the financial trouble was also attributed to the high
player salaries. For instance, the Philadelphia
Blazers signed Derek Sanderson for $2.6 million, which
surpassed that of Braziliansoccer star,
Pelé, making him the
highest-paid athlete in the world at the time. Unfortunately, his
play did not live up to the expectations of his salary – nor,
realistically, could it have – and between an early-season injury,
intemperate remarks to the press, and Blazer financial troubles,
Sanderson's contract was bought out before the end of the
season.

As well, big stars lacked supporting players and the quality of
the on-ice product suffered.

Talent
competition

The WHA had won several key victories, including a court ruling
which prevented the NHL from binding players to NHL teams via the
reserve clause, and the signings of more NHL stars such as Marc Tardif and Gordie Howe, and in
later years, Frank Mahovlich and Paul
Henderson.

In 1974, to broaden a depleted talent
pool, the WHA began employing European players – which the NHL had
largely ignored up to that time – in serious numbers, including
stars such as Swedish players Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson and Czech center
Vaclav Nedomansky. Winnipeg
especially loaded up with Scandinavian players and became the class
of the league, with Hedberg and Nilsson combining with Bobby Hull
to form one of hockey's most formidable forward lines. Along with
the mass import of European stars, the Vancouver franchise
attempted unsuccessfully to lure Phil Esposito away from the NHL by
offering a contract similar to that of Bobby Hull, with a million
dollars upfront.[11]

International
play

The 1972 Summit
Series, which pitted Team Canada against the Soviets, did not
permit WHA players, due to the decision of series organizer Alan Eagleson, an
NHL agent who was influential in forming the Canadian team. Bobby Hull, one of the
best WHA players, was ruled ineligible to play because of his
defection from the NHL, despite being initially selected by coach
Harry Sinden. Dennis Hull initially
planned to boycott the event as well as a show of support for his
older brother, but Bobby persuaded him to stay on Team Canada.
Other WHA stars turned down included Gerry Cheevers and Derek
Sanderson. Some NHL owners also threatened not to free their
players to participate if WHA players were permitted.

The WHA organized the 1974 Summit Series against the
Soviets, giving an opportunity for Hull and 46-year old Gordie Howe to play for
Canada against the Soviet team, which the Soviets won 4-1-3.

In the 1976
Canada Cup, the NHL and NHLPA broaded the scope of the
competition, inviting to the tournament a number of hockey
countries and allowing each invited country to send the best
possible team they could muster, so this time WHA players were
permitted. WHA players played on four of the tournament's six
teams.

Decline and
merger

By 1976, it had become evident that
many of the WHA's franchises were teetering on the verge of
financial collapse, with stable teams few and far between, and that
the (at one time) combined 30 teams of the NHL and WHA had badly
strained the talent pool.

In 1977, merger discussions with the National Hockey League were
first initiated, where six of the eight WHA teams would move to the
NHL; as Houston, Cincinnati, Winnipeg, New England, Quebec, and
Edmonton applied for entry. After a lengthy debate, the NHL voted
the proposal down as it was never popular among NHL team
owners.

Merger discussions resumed in 1978, but Houston was not part of
the proposal this time, and as a result the Aeros elected to fold
on July 6, 1978. During the final series of talks, Aeros owner
Kenneth Schnitzer campaigned to the NHL that either his team be
admitted as an expansion team independent of a merger, or he would
attempt to purchase an existing club and relocate it to Houston.
Neither came to fruition.

However, by the end of the final season, only six teams
remained. Facing financial difficulty and unable to meet payrolls,
the WHA finally came to an agreement with the NHL in early 1979.
Under the deal, four WHA clubs – the Edmonton Oilers, New England Whalers
(renamed the Hartford Whalers), Quebec
Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets – joined the NHL. The other
two WHA teams, the Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham
Bulls, were paid $1.5 million apiece in compensation. The
agreement was very tilted in the NHL's favour. The older league
treated the new clubs' arrival as an expansion, not a merger, so
the four WHA refugees thus had to pay a $6 million franchise fee.
The NHL also refused to recognize any WHA records. While the new
clubs were allowed to stock their rosters with an expansion draft, NHL teams
were allowed to reclaim players who had jumped to the WHA.[13]

The WHA was able to wrangle only two concessions. First, the WHA
teams were allowed to protect two goaltenders and two skaters to
keep their rosters from being completely stripped clean by the
old-line NHL teams. Second, the NHL allowed all of the WHA's
Canadian teams to be part of the deal. The NHL had originally only
been willing to take the Oilers, Whalers and Jets, but the WHA
insisted that the Nordiques be included as well.

The deal came up for a vote at the NHL Board of Governors
meeting in Key Largo, Florida on March 8.
Despite the one-sided nature of the proposal, the final tally was
12-5, one vote short of passage, as a three-quarters majority was
required to permit merger[14] (13
teams out of 17 would have represented 76.5% of the league). The Boston Bruins, Los Angeles
Kings, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto
Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks all voted against
the deal. The Bruins weren't pleased with having to share New England with the
Whalers. Los Angeles and Vancouver feared losing home dates with
NHL teams from the East. Montreal and Toronto weren't enamored at
the prospect of having to split revenue from Hockey Night in Canada
broadcasts six ways rather than three.[13]
Maple Leafs owner Ballard had a personal grudge as well; he'd never
forgiven the WHA for plundering his roster in the early 1970s.

When a second vote was held in Chicago on March 22, however, Montreal and
Vancouver changed their votes, allowing the deal to go forward. The
Canadiens' hand was forced by a massive boycott of Molson products
in Edmonton, Quebec City and Winnipeg. Vancouver was won over by
the promise of a balanced schedule, with each team playing the
others twice at home and twice on the road.[13]

Legacy of the
WHA

On the ice, the WHA teams had proven themselves to be the NHL's
competitive equals, winning more games than they lost in
interleague exhibition games.

The WHA had many lasting effects on NHL hockey. The NHL used to
recruit virtually all players from Canada, but following the
success of the Jets' Hedberg and Nilsson scouts began looking
overseas for the best players that Europe could offer. Teams such
as the Whalers and Fighting Saints also offered excellent
opportunities for young American players, and several U.S.-born or
-raised NHL stars of the early 1980s (such as Mark Howe, Rod Langway, Dave Langevin, Robbie Ftorek, and Paul Holmgren)
began their pro careers in the WHA. As a result, the NHL evolved
into a truly cosmopolitan league during the 1980s.

The WHA also ended the NHL policy of paying its players only a
fraction of the league's profits and, combined with the abolition
of the reserve clause, led to much higher player salaries. Many
great stars began their careers in the WHA, including Mark Howe, Wayne Gretzky, Mike Gartner, Mike Liut, and Mark Messier. Messier
was the last WHA veteran to play in the NHL; he opened his
professional career with 52 games with the Indianapolis Racers and Cincinnati
Stingers in 1978–79, and played his last NHL
game on April 3, 2004. The final active player and official in any
on-ice capacity for the league was referee Don Koharski, a linesman for the WHA who
retired at the end of the 2008–09 NHL season.

The WHA is also responsible for overtime to attempt to settle
regular season tie games. When the WHA was founded, there was no
overtime for regular season NHL games. The WHA however, instituted
a 10 minute sudden death overtime for regular season games. The
first team to score would win the game, and if nobody scored in 10
minutes, it would then be declared a tie. This reduced the number
of ties considerably (the largest number of ties in a WHA season
was 9, while in the NHL teams routinely had 15-20 ties per
season).

After the NHL-WHA merger, the NHL tried to adopt the same
format, but the players wanted increased revenues for playing more
minutes. Finally, after contentious negotiations, the NHL adopted a
5 minute sudden death overtime.

Fate of
surviving teams

The former WHA clubs were expected to struggle after joining the
NHL since the terms of the expansion allowed the incoming WHA teams
to protect only two goalies and two skaters each in the player dispersal draft.
Instead, though, some did respectably well in their first year,
with the Whalers and Oilers earning playoff berths. The Whalers' Gordie Howe and the
Oilers' Wayne
Gretzky were selected to the midseason All-Star Game,
respectively the oldest and second-youngest ever to play in such a
match. The Jets, however, posted a dismal 9 wins that first season,
still a NHL record.

The 1980s was considered a successful period for the former WHA
teams. The Oilers, led by Wayne Gretzky, shattered numerous NHL
records and amassed a Stanley Cup dynasty. The Jets were
decimated by the dispersal draft but went on to develop a solid
nucleus of star players who helped the club achieve respectable
regular-season finishes. However, the Jets managed only two
postseason series wins (in 1984-85 and 1986-87), due to the playoff
structure of the time that had them regularly face their dominant
Smythe
Division rivals, the Oilers and Calgary Flames. The Nordiques developed
a rivalry with the Montreal Canadiens and captured the
Adams Division title in 1985-86. The Whalers had similar
rivalries with the Boston Bruins and New York
Rangers, attracting many Bruins and Rangers fans to their home
games at the Hartford Civic
Center, and skating to the 1986–87 Adams Division title.

In the 1990s, the on-ice performances of the former WHA clubs
declined, as they usually missed the playoffs or exited in the
first round. Furthermore, like other recently-added expansion NHL
teams, they suffered from escalating player salaries and restricted
revenue because of smaller fanbases compared to the large-market
franchises. The ex-WHA clubs based in Canada (plus Calgary, Ottawa,
and Vancouver) were also hit hard by the declining value of the
Canadian dollar, as these teams' revenues are earned in Canadian
dollars but salaries are paid in U.S. dollars. The Nordiques
finished what would be their last year in Quebec (the lockout-shortened 1994–95 season) at
the top of their conference, but went on to a first-round playoff
exit. Both the Oilers and Nordiques had asked for bailouts from
Alberta and Quebec, respectively, but both provincial governments
ultimately declined, as it would be perceived by voters as
government subsidization of a hockey club that paid multi-million
dollar salaries. (federal Industry Minister John Manley also unveiled a multi-million
dollar rescue package for the cash-strapped Ottawa
Senators, being a friend of owner Rod Bryden, but later withdrew the aid after
critics argued that there were better uses for public funds).[15]

The Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995 and
became the Colorado Avalanche, the Winnipeg
Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996 and became the Phoenix
Coyotes, and the Hartford Whalers moved to North Carolina in
1997 and became the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes played
temporarily in Greensboro, then in Raleigh from 1999 onwards. In
1998, Oilers owner Peter Pocklington nearly sold the
team to Leslie
Alexander, who sought to move the team to Houston. However, at the sale deadline, a consortium of
local investors came up with the funds necessary to keep the
Oilers in Edmonton, so it remains the last WHA team still in its
original city. The Edmonton investors were supported by the NHL,
which did not want to see a third Canadian (and ex-WHA) team
relocate after the Nordiques and Jets, as this would have put the
league's lucrative Canadian television contracts in jeopardy.

The financial status of most small-market NHL teams, including
former WHA teams, has since largely stabilized. The Avalanche were
an instant success in their new home of Denver and now rank among
the wealthiest franchises, enjoying 487 consecutive home
sellouts,[16]
winning nine straight division titles, and being a mainstay in the
Western Conference playoff picture. League commissioner Gary Bettman
implemented the Canadian assistance plan, a revenue
sharing agreement that saw American teams give money to help
support the four smallest-market Canadian teams. The 2004–05 NHL lockout resulted in a
hard salary cap, player salary rollbacks, and revenue sharing,
which enabled small-market teams to be more competitive. The Oilers
have enjoyed strong fan
support ever since, selling out all but one home game in the
2005–06 season.

The Coyotes were initially popular upon their move to Phoenix,
as they posted six consecutive .500 or better seasons; however,
they were plagued by financial problems and low attendance after
their last playoff appearance in 2002. In 2009, they declared
bankruptcy and a buyer attempted to move it to Southern
Ontario (likely Hamilton), but the NHL challenged the
court filing and halted the relocation efforts.

Stanley Cup
Playoffs

Since 1979, three of the four former WHA teams have won the
Stanley Cup: the Oilers have played in the finals seven times,
winning five; the Avalanche have played for it twice, winning on
both occasions; the Hurricanes have played for it twice, winning
once. The 2006 Stanley Cup playoffs
marked the first time two former WHA teams played for the Cup, with
the Hurricanes defeating the Oilers in seven games. At least one of
the former WHA teams had qualified for the NHL playoffs in every
season from the merger, save for the 1994 and 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Only the Jets, despite winning the most WHA championships, have
not managed much success in the NHL, nor have they come close to
making the Cup finals. Unlike the Whalers and Nordiques who won
championships since they relocated, the Jets have not won a playoff
series since becoming the Phoenix Coyotes, even with the seeding
changed, and have not qualified for the playoffs since 2002.

Hockey
Hall of Famers

List of WHA players and executives inducted into the Hockey Hall
of Fame, for achievements in their hockey career.